Hello Monkeys, I am currently in the process of transferring and was frustrated by the lack of a centralized source of information about transfer friendly schools for IB, so I made one for the website. Anyone who has some value to add related to placement from any of these schools, please comment so I can make this more detailed and useful for students looking to transfer.
Note: I will intentionally leave out schools with really low rates of transfer because for most applicants, they're unrealistic to consider.
best transfer schools for investment banking
Northwestern (12.5% transfer acceptance rate) - Solid school for IB, especially in Chicago, but placement is decent in NYC as well. Overall, more people are interested in consulting (MBB's are big on campus) and there are generally 50 or so people in a class interested in banking.
Vanderbilt University (25-33% transfer acceptance rate) - Extremely fun school with a loyal alumni network. Most of the banking recruitment comes from southern banks like Harris Williams, Stephens, SunTrust, Raymond James and Wells Fargo as most students here are southern focused. However, NYC is possible and there have been a lot of people go to Bank of America (The most analysts at BAML come from Wharton, followed closely by Vanderbilt.)
Emory (25% transfer acceptance rate): Accepts transfers into business school only after spending 1 year as a pre business major, before applying to the business school. This is a risk because many people have attempted to do this and have been forced to settle with an econ major, which does not enjoy the same recruitment and respect as the Goizeuta business majors. I know of a kid who transferred to Emory and was WAITLISTED and eventually accepted with a 4.0 GPA before transfer and a 4.0 while at Emory for a year. He was not accepted until midway through the summer and planned to be an econ major but at the last minute a spot opened. It seems that transfer students are at a disadvantage when applying to the business school. However, if you are willing to take the risk, Gouizeta has solid regional placement in places like Charlotte, Raleigh and especially Atlanta for banking.
Duke: (10.7% transfer rate, extremely competitive as reflected below)- Great school, good placement in New york and in the south and has a solid name brand. Admission as transfer is very competitive (like undergrad). Solid stats are needed.
University of California – Berkeley: Berkeley has a very good national brand and does well in New York. However, most of the graduates will gravitate towards jobs in Los Angeles and San Francisco for obvious location reasons. The acceptance rate for out of state transfers is extremely low at around 4%. Most of the transfers come from California community colleges.
University of California - Los Angeles – Similar to Berkeley, with about a 5-8% transfer rate for out of state residents.
University of Southern California – Transfer rate, 25% to Marshall business program. Each year USC successfully places a good amount of students in banking, mostly in San Francisco. USC has a very strong alumni base and will fight to help students succeed.
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill – UNC has a relatively high transfer admission rate, however they do not accept students directly into the business program (Kenan Flagler). Transfers will have to apply after one semester at UNC to the business school. Transfers are at a disadvantage and many solid transfer students do not get accepted and have to settle as econ. However I have heard stories of people transferring successfully, there is still a risk to it. Kenan Flagler students enjoy recruiting from many of the top banks in Charlotte and New York. UNC gets a lot of respect and has a very strong alumni base. The econ students do not enjoy the OCR opportunities for investment banks that the business students do.
Georgetown University – 10% acceptance rate, places very well into NYC IB. I have personally met numerous people in banking and trading at top firms in New York.
Cornell AEM/Hotel school/any school– Cornell is known as the most transfer friendly Ivy league school, and it places very well into banking. Cornell has an out of state, non community college transfer rate of about 10% with most of the successful applicants having GPA’s above a 3.8 and a solid ACT or SAT.
Indiana University – Bloomington – Indiana enjoys solid recruiting for finance students in both New York and Chicago. If you are able to join the investment-banking workshop you will almost certainly place into an MM at the very least. However, as a transfer you will need to apply to the business school after a semester or two. I am not aware of the rates of admission but I believe if you maintain a certain GPA you are automatically accepted. I have seen people transfer into Indiana and place into banking. One of the problems with Indiana is that they actively try to weed out kids by making classes very difficult, and the GPA of students applying to the business school is often hurt because of this. Watch out for that
University of Pennsylvania – Econ – Even Econ majors at Penn place very well for IB. You’re obviously better off being in Wharton but the transfer rate is insanely low into Wharton and almost unrealistic for applicants without perfect extracurricular and stats. Penn has a transfer rate around 9%.
Brown University – 5% transfer rate (extremely competitive), solid placement everywhere.
University of Virginia – Econ – Mcintire’s transfer rate is extremely low outside of the Virginia community college system. Econ placement is not as strong or sought after as Mcintire. Econ majors also don’t enjoy access to on campus recruiting
University of Michigan - Ross – Transferring into Ross requires staying for a year and applying to Ross after completion. Transferring in is very competitive, but if you can pull it off, Ross enjoys solid placement in Chicago and NYC. I personally would not take the risk of being an econ major if not being accepted to Ross after a year, but that’s just me.
Columbia – 6% (extremely competitive) acceptance rate, solid placement into IB.
New York University – Econ – Sterns transfer acceptance rate is extremely low, many transfers opt to do econ as they have access to Sterns OCR. I cannot speak firsthand about the placement for Econ, but I can tell you that it is very competitive, but certainly possible to break into IB as an econ at NYU. It helps with networking being in the city. However, I consider NYU econ to be a last resort. There are better options.
University of Wisconsin – Madison : ~ 40% transfer rate. UWM places well into Chicago and some of the top students make it to NYC. It is definitely possible to succeed and the alumni network pulls for the students. If you participate in the Investment Banking club at UW Madison you will have the opportunity to travel to New York and Chicago for networking trips. I gained a lot of respect for UW Madison when I checked LinkedIn for alumni in banking.
Villanova University Does not accept transfers into the business school except as an internal transfer after attending for a period. Very few external transfers are accepted. Villanova enjoys decent placement into NYC and has a strong alumni base. I don't know much about Villanova but there is not a lot of information about transferring into the business school available online.
UT Austin - Mccombs More information needed on placement. UT austin is a step above the other Texas schools for placement outside of Texas.
Other Texas/Energy focused Schools Rice University, Baylor, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist, TCU, Tulane. All of these schools are the best places you can go if you are interested in working in the south, especially in Dallas or Houston. Lots of energy jobs available. I know firsthand that students from SMU are capable of placing into NYC IB, but many of the students choose to live in the south. I mean why not? The women are beautiful and it's always warm and sunny. Also the cost of living is much lower, and from what I hear, the pay is comparable to NYC.
Looking to begin your college career. Check out the comprehensive list of target schools for investment banking.
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